Tour of Homes

I know you have so many places to get to today, but I hope you can come in for a quick visit.

Come on in…

First we have our living room/dining room area. Thank goodness for Tackle It Tuesday, or else you would not be able to see our lovely dining room table. It sometimes doubles as a scrapping area and has been known to be covered for months in scrap stuff. (I do have an area in the basement, but sometimes it just creeps up here.)

Next we have our “great room.” Nowadays, houses around here are being built with rooms that include kitchen and living space. Here we have our main living area. This place can quickly look like a tornado ripped through with the high traffic it gets. The family room, which has the colored squares covering our hardwood floor, is Jackson main play area, complete with his own table.

To the left, you can see my “work space” at the kitchen table. (For you Tacklers – look closely – it is still clean!) We have an office area upstairs, but I prefer to work down here in the middle of the action. Eventually we will enclose the upstairs open office area and turn it into another bedroom.

I love my work area – during the day it is so inspiring with the trees and sunlight. (This picture was taken for a Tackle post.)

And the kitchen is in here too. It is wonderful to have it all together. I can cook or clean the kitchen while watching Jackson play, or if after his bedtime, even watch some TV. I love it!

Downstairs we have another playroom – it used to have a pool table but we gave it to a friend so Jackson could have a place to play hockey etc during our long, rainy fall and winter.

We are especially grateful for this home, because, well, it isn’t ours. My hubby and I do not own it. My mom does and we live here with her. This arrangement works out very well for us. She has her bedroom and en-suite bathroom on the main floor and we have the upstairs, and pretty much the basement, which includes my scrap area, a TV area and Jackson’s other play room, to ourselves. We share all the living space on the main floor.

Actually, my mom is rarely here, so we basically have the place to ourselves. My mom, my twin sister Susan and I run our online children’s stores together and we have a home office at Susan’s townhouse two blocks away. Ironically, my mom spends most of her time there. She even cooks and eats her meals there! Jackson is always complaining that Grandma doesn’t live here anymore because most of the time he spends with her is over at Susan’s house.

Housing prices here have gone crazy here – and I mean really crazy. You do not want me to tell you how much a house costs in this neighborhood – and we live in the suburbs! So in order to reduce financial stress and to allow me to stay at home with Jackson, we have decided that living here makes the most sense right now.

Yes, my mom is the most generous, incredible woman and we are so grateful for what she is doing for us. It sometimes does cause my husband and me stress, and hurts our pride, that we do not own a house of our own, but right now it seems like this is what we should do. My mom insists that the house is too big for her anyway and tells us that we do not need to be in any hurry to move. So here we are. Grateful and humble.

Thank you so much for coming over. It has been so great having you.

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I think your home is lovely and I don’t think there is anything wrong with your living arrangement! It sounds pretty ideal to me. I understand about the hurt pride and owning your own home thing, though. We rent right now but would love to own.

Well, your mom’s house is beautiful. Y’all are brave to have that whilte living room with little ones around. The rubber mats on the wood floors are awfully smart!

Housing prices in your area sound like those in Seattle where my sister lives. We’d consider moving there, except we’d have to live in a cardboard box and probably wouldn’t be able to afford even that!

I am touring all these houses on “Tour of Homes,” and I am so jealous. Your house is beautiful. I could sit in your work area all day and just soak up that great view. All the houses I see so far have such different, but wonderful decorating schemes. I think yours is one of the best. I also like Sandras a lot at Diary of a Stay at Home mom. I love that your house looks elegant yet comforting and inviting. Not an easy combination to pull of, but you did it, and did it with grace. Oh, by the way I did not mean jelous in a mean way, you know the kind of jealous that is joyous, if this makes sence.

Okay one more comment. I think your living arrangement is great. I live in military housing, not my own, but I decorate it as if it was. I think a home can be anywhere, not just if you own it, but as long as you live in it, it is your home.

Okay just one more. I kind of think parents love when their kids live in their homes. I don’t know why anyone would want to live alone. It’s more fun living with lots of people just like years ago. Everyone then can take care of one another. You are lucky. We are always so far from family being in the military.

Great house, love your kitchen especially! Thank you for the tour, & thanks for visiting me. I didn’t realize you had 5minutesformom! I am in the signing-up process. I am impressed with what you are doing! Wow!

Thank you so much for letting us see a glimpse of your home…well your mother’s house but still your home:-) It’s beautiful and I love the furniture and decor!! This Tour of Homes was a brilliant idea:-)

The kitchen island is great, especially the high back that can hide your “work in progress” (in my house known as dirty dishes). Also good place for visitors to lean on and distract you while you’re cooking. (I don’t operate well under those conditions)

Janice, your home is beautiful. I’ve said it a few times on my blog but didn’t reiterate it again during the tour, we don’t own a home either. We lost our dream home almost nine years ago and have rented ever since. It has been an intentional decision that we wait now until the kids are older before we even consider having me go back to work. Family comes first! God can hand each of us a home tomorrow if he so wishes. Being home with the kids is more important. 🙂

I loved your house initially just looking at the pictures – but then reading why you’ve chosen to live there made me love it even more. What a blessing – what a provision from God – and what an encouragement.

I think the best thing about your house and living arrangements is that you do it because it is what is best for your son. I don’t know too many people willing to live with their moms (or make any kind of sacrifice really) to be at home with their kids. Kuddos to you and what a blessing that it is a nice home on top of it all!

What a beautiful home… regardless of who owns it. I, too, am blessed with a generous mom who would give everything to me if she could. Over the years, I found the guilt creeping up on me and when I finally confessed to her she admonished me for trying to take away her rights to “give back” what was given to her many years ago. While I admit it is still sometimes overwhelming to think of the love she continually pours on me, I’m so grateful that I am blessed enough to have her at all!! Thanks for sharing your home and your story! Can’t wait to stop in for my next visit!

Now that is what I call a workable kitchen! But the white furniture would drive me crazy or else my kids… “Have you washed your hands? Don’t sit there unless you can give verifiable proof that you haven’t touched anything that would even think about staining this couch!” But that’s just me.

I’m thrilled that you have such a loving mom to see the need and to open her home to you. That is true love for you!